Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2011
A novel, simple and efficient procedure was developed to electrodeposit one-dimensional Ag nanowires from reverse hexagonal liquid crystalline phases by using their one-dimensional cylindrical aqueous microdomains as space-confined reactors. Using this soft-template approach, flexible Ag nanowire arrays with wire diameter of 15-30 nm, high aspect ratio over 1000, and high wire densities over 1011 wires/cm2 were obtained. The Ag nanowire arrays can be easily collected by simply washing. The nanowires obtained can be used either in high-density bundle form or as single wires after dispersion by untrasonication.